Grunt, a well-known task runner for automating JavaScript tasks, has gone to a 1.0.0 release. Changes include prevention of the async callback function from being called multiple times, removal of duplicate BOM (byte order mark) strip code, and updates to the command-line interface.

But the 1.0.0 version no longer supports Node.js 0.8, which debuted in mid-2012.

Grunt features plug-ins and serves as a build tool for project setup. Plug-ins are available via the NPM JavaScript package manager, and example plug-ins run predefined tasks, copy files, run tasks concurrently, and validate JSON files.

Adobe, Mozilla, Twitter, and Walmart all use Grunt. JetBrains's WebStorm IDE for Node.js has integrated with Grunt. Microsoft has backed it as well, along with the Gulp task runner.

The Grunt team markets the tool's usefulness in reducing workloads: "The less work you have to do when performing repetitive tasks like minification, compilation, unit testing, linting, the easier your job becomes. After you've configured it through a Gruntfile, a task runner can do most of that mundane work for you."